Anthrosource

American Ethnologist

Volume 28. Issue 4. November 2001 (Pages 803 - 826)

Ritual Killing, 419, and Fast Wealth: Inequality and the Popular Imagination in Southeastern Nigeria:

Daniel Jordan Smith

In this article, I situate a seemingly fantastic series of events in Nigeria in a context that renders them meaningful and acknowledges their intimate connection to everyday issues of wealth, power, and inequality. Focusing on popular stories of the occult circulating in the wake of a widely publicized case of ritual killing, I argue that these stories depict popular discontent over inequality, but also Nigerians' ambivalence about and critical awareness of their own role in maintaining patron-clientism. [Nigeria, patronage, inequality, witchcraft]